A picture worth more than a thousand souls
by unavoidable-k
Summary: When faced with the problem of decorating the Sanctuary, Six is commissioned by Two and Five to draw something to put in a frame. It must be something important... something that holds memories! Luckily...he knows just what to draw.
It took time to turn the library into a home for the 'punks. It took a lot of hard work to rebuild a watchtower, make beds and all other essentials. Making a new bucket lift proved to be the most challenging task but if they'd done it before they could do it again.

There was just one problem.

It wasn't particularly...decorative.

Now that they had found a permanent home in the library, which wasn't under the threatening eye of the machine, they may as well go all out.

The most colour they had in their lives, aside from the varied shades of browns, reds and greys, lay in the fabric they salvaged from the Emptiness. They had a couple of paintings, although they were old and worn away, not to mention they weren't exactly 'stitchpunk' sized. It was hard to find things to put up on the walls that would look nice. The workshop was covered in plans and blueprints from wall to wall but places like the (new) throne room still looked a bit barren.

"It just seems so...bare." Two commented, inspecting the rooms layout. One muttered an agreement. "It'll become better over time. I'm sure you'll find some things on your trips to decorate the place with. Just...don't go overboard." He warned, strictly. Two flashed him in a innocent smile. "I haven't a clue what you're talking about."

"Regardless...I'm sure Nine and Five would be willing to help you."

"I'm sure they would. The only problem is...it's difficult to find something genuinely lovely to put up. The twins wouldn't let us take pictures from their books and the paintings are far too big not to mention in rather bad shape. It wouldn't look good to just stick whatever we find to the walls..." He trailed, murmuring to himself. One had merely watched him go off on a tangent, not even bothering to listen. He grew tired of Two's ramblings very quickly and dismissed him with a sigh.

"Just...nothing too offensive to the optics, please." He said, before stalking off to attend to something else.

"I'll try. I just don't know what to...hmm." He frowned for a moment, bending his head down, thinking rather deeply before something hit him. Or, he had hit something.

He'd taken a step back and accidentally knocked into Five, who had suddenly appeared. He gave a short noise of surprise. "Hm? Oh, Five! Just the person I was planning to talk to." He smiled broadly at the one-eyed stitchpunk. Five cocked his head. "Me? What did you need?"

"Well, One and I were just discussing how barren the place looked. We need something to liven up the place. What do you think?" He asked. Five hummed softly, staring blankly at the walls. "I mean...the humans put paintings and pictures on the walls to decorate but the paintings are way too big..." He commented. Two nodded in agreement. "Exactly what I thought."

"You sounded like you had an idea, a minute ago. What was it?" Five asked curiously. Two rakced his brain for the thought that had just disappeared. "Well you said about paintings...I think...Well!" He exclaimed rather suddenly, taking Five by surprise.

"Huh? What?"

"Well we do have our own little artist don't we?" He nudged Five in the side, playfully. "You see what I'm getting at, yes?" Five nodded enthusiastically. "Definitely."

"Six?"

Six looked up from his drawing. It was unusual for anybody other than Eight or the twins to come and see him during the day. "Huh? What?" He asked, smudging some ink across his face with the back of his hand. He pushed the piece of paper aside and got to his feet, dusting himself off but only to smear more ink across himself.

"We have a favour to ask you."

Six tilted his head, his odd optic dilated rapidly as if constantly trying to focus on the pair. "Like what?" He doesn't often get asked for things. "We wonder if you'd draw us something nice to put up in the throne room." It wasn't much of a throne room but since it was the main room in the old sanctuary, they ended up making the new sanctuary in it's likeness.

"Something...like what?"

"Well that's your choice. Draw whatever you think is suitable." Two told him,c heerfully. Six seemed to be contemplating the thought. "You could draw us! Or something that holds nice memories for us. Like the phonograph!" Five piped up, apparently not aware of the extreme irony of his words . Six quite liked the idea. He wanted to make something special. Something everyone would really appreciate. He didn't have many chances when it came to flaunting his talent so he was eager to do it right.

"If you can't do it then draw whatever you'd like. We'd like it all the same." Two gave him a friendly pat on the shoulder and Six smiled shyly. "I can do it. Just give me a little while." He said. The pair seemed satisfied at this answer. "We could make a frame for it too. Then we could hang it up properly!" Five suggested. "That sounds easy enough. Well, we'll leave you to it, Six." And with that, they left him in his room.

As an artist, he saw things differently from people like One and the twins. They were intelligent by nature and more gifted in academic knowledge than creativity, whereas people like Two and Five saw things the way he did. They could see the use in everything. Their creativity knew no bounds, not to mention the pair were also rather intelligent as well. Six wasn't much in the way of brains. He was all creative and little intellect. It's why he got along with Eight rather well (once he had ceased to bully him). Eight wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed either so they were on the same page in terms of intelligence.

But this was his chance to make a decent contribution to making the library their home. Five was right. He needed to make something that held memories, but it proved difficult as most memories tended to be bad. The phonograph was a nice idea but it was reminiscent of Five's untimely demise. The bridge was no good, which he knew more than anyone. He could even draw the first room but death had struck even there, for their creator.

This was harder than he had thought.

The more he thought about it, the more he liked the previous ideas. It'd be kind of...cool to have a collection of pictures of the places each one had died. He chuckled at his own morbid ideas. There was no way One was having it. He couldn't help but sigh in despair. The moment his artistic talent was required, it had seemingly run off on holiday.

Unless...

No, this was perfect! He knew the entire thing like the back of his hand, so he needed no reference. All he had to do was refine the drawing, make it neater, add the details and all that. Not to mention, it fit the criteria perfectly. Something that was important to them. It held memories, good and bad, and even held the memories of the creator. He knew it was a little silly drawing it, since it was here in the library (although buried six feet under now) but it seemed the most fitting. All he had to do was find some real nice paper to do it on. And he could use those new coloured inks Eight had found! He grabbed the inks and paper and sat down.

It felt so...odd to draw it. For the first time, it felt so foreign to him.

"Well, that didn't take long at all, did it!" Two sighed, feeling a lot more relaxed upon the completion of the frame. It wasn't too hard to make either and they had the materials. It was just nice to make something new for once. "How's your hand, Five?" He turned to his apprentice, who was fiddling with his finger joints. "H-Huh? Oh, it's fine." He said, albeit unsurely. "I didn't hit it that hard, anyway." He said dismissively, shaking his hand. Two chuckled. It was slightly ironic how the healer would disregard his own health. He took the younger's hand in his and inspected it carefully. There was certainly a dent in his middle finger but it wasn't life-threatening.

"Now, why don't we see how Six is doing. Knowing his skill, he's most likely done already." He said, very chipper. Five carefully picked up the new frame and nodded silently in agreement. "I wonder what he chose to draw..." He muttered, to nobody in particular.

Six finished his piece and sat back with a satisfied expression. He'd never been happier with a piece of work. Obviously, he was worried that the others wouldn't like it but...well what's the worst that could happen. He was happy and if they others didn't like it, he could hang it in his own room.

He almost jumped a foot in the air at the sound of a knock at his door. Two pushed the door ajar and peered into the room. "Six, are you here? We've finished the frame." He pushed it a little wider and stepped into the room. "How are you doing? Have you finished yet?" He asked, masking his excitement with a casual tone. Six nodded enthusiastically, gesturing to the paper. He couldn't pick it up without getting it covered in ink, so he let Two handle it.

Two couldn't hide his surprise even if he tried.

"Oh my! This is...this is remarkable! I should've known you would've picked such a significant subject. You're going to have to draw some more to put up!" He joked, with a grin. Six brightened at the positive reaction and watched Five as he approached, frame in arms. He looked equally surprised. "W-Wow! That's great, Six!" Six was almost blushing at this point. "It'll look great in the frame!" He held it up, and opened the back. Two neatly fitted the paper in the frame, so it looked even, and fixed the back onto it. The three stood back a little to admire their handiwork.

"Well, then. Let's go and put it up."

As Five carried the frame down to the throne room with Six, Two gathered the rest of the Stitchpunks to show them what Six had drawn (and maybe get an opinion on it). So all nine of them were stood in a group as Five adjusted the back of the frame to fit on the nail Two had hammered into the wall.

"What did you draw, Six?" Nine asked, cheerfully. He was expecially excited to see what Six could do. He had never seen him draw anything else but the source since his awakening (and he wasn't sure if Six had actually drawn anything but the source since his birth either) but he was excited. Six merely shrugged in response.

"You'll see it in a minute." He said, mysteriously. He couldn't hide his grin though, so it came off as coy instead. The twins clapped excitedly, happy to have something put up on the wall that hadn't been ripped from their books. Ever since One had ripped a sizeable chunk out of a page in one of their books, they'd become protective over them (even though they'd just about memorised them all).

"It better not be anything..." He trailed for a moment, unsure of what to say, "...weird." He finished, for lack of a better term. Six smiled shyly, although his eyes held mischief. "I don't know what you mean by that." He said innocently. He felt he could get away with being a little bit cheeky nowadays. Meanwhile, One was just relieved that Six wasn't absolutely terrified of him anymore.

"Lemme just prop it up here...aaaand...there we go! What do you guys think!" Five stood back, watching the groups reaction. It went as well as he thought it would go.

"That's...! Why did you think of that of all things?"

"I think it's rather fitting."

"...(^u^) 3..."

"...3 (^u^)..."

"It's good though, isn't it?"

"Thanks...I tried my best!"

"It's great, Six. Although I didn't expect that of all things..."

"Not much change, is there?"

"I think it's amazing. Of all the things to put up, it seems the most fitting."

Six watched the reactions of his friends. At least nobody hated it. Well, One was immediately wary of it, as he was with pretty much everything, but he didn't immediately dismiss it...which was a good sign! The twins looked happy, Eight looked impressed and everyone liked it. He couldn't have asked for a better reaction.

So once everyone had filed out to attend to their own business, Nine had grabbed Six by the shoulder. Six spun around to meet Nine and he shot him a questioning look.

"Six, the picture you drew...it's really amazing."

"That's really nice of you to say."

"Not just that...for some reason I feel like it means a lot to me. It means a lot to everyone."

"I know. It felt so strange drawing it though. I've never felt strange drawing it."

"I can imagine! C'mon, why don't we go and find Five."

"Yeah!"

Nine led Six to the door and just before he passed through, he glanced back at the picture one more time. It was drawn with exquisite detail. It was mainly subtle colours of browns and greys with sudden dashes of bright green.

The Source.

The Talisman.

* * *

I dunno...?

I daydream so much so I get flooded with many, many ideas for stories.

Expect spam stories yeah


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